Withlacoochee Bassin’

Florida Sportsman

We ran up the river and spotted a big wild hog running on the bank. It was a nice 160-200 pounder. We ran up to Cowhead Flats and started fishing a canal, looking for warm water. The bass are staging, looking to bed, and Alex got a 3.9 pretty quick on six pound test with a 4″ worm.

Forum member GneFshn spent Thanksgiving with family in Coral Gables. Rather than chasing some deals, he decided to hunt peacocks under a local bridge on Black Friday. He landed this one on twelve pound braid. “The fight was touch and go for a minute or so, but it seemed like forever!” She measured 23.25″ long, 17″ girth and weighed 8.1 pounds, his best one to date.

Forum member Reel Tease attended ICAST a few weeks back and got some good footage of some new freshwater lures that were announced at the event. Take a look at some of the videos to see their in-the-water action. The Westin “Freddy the Frog” and LIVETARGET crawfish both placed in the “Best of ICAST” in their respective categories.

We decided to try something new this time and filmed an oscar catch and cook. We had never eaten oscar before, but it was surprisingly really good! Seriously, if you guys haven’t had oscar yet, you should get out to the ‘glades and catch some.

I went down and fished the everglades this weekend for the first time in a few years. The water is low, so there is a lot of fish to be caught in the canals right now. I caught fish all day long tossing a spook.

Fishing primarily out of Mullet Lake Park and CS Lee, we have managed to catch them from ten pounds one ounce, down to little guys coming in at one to two and a half pounds. We have been catching them on the troll with F7 size Rapalas and the cheap knock-offs of the same. Rattle traps have got a few, as has fly, and the Sebile Stick Shad is getting them now. Topwater has been exciting as well, with major explosions and the best “eats” I have seen all year.

I took my son on a half-day trip this morning for a very unique experience. I set up a charter with Capt. Kelly out of Vero Beach Tight Line Charters. We caught a few big specks on live minnows and a bunch of nice bass on shiners. The air boat experience was amazing! I highly recommend this to anyone interested for a change-of-pace from our desolate inshore grass flats.

I was researching Stick Marsh and found Ansin Garcia, which lies directly south of Stick Marsh, and the new Fellsmere Reservoir, which is on the east side of Stick Marsh. Ansin Garcia is open to all access and is setup to give some protection from the wind. The new Fellsmere Reservoir appears to be ready to fish, but has no ramps. At least for now, it’s paddle craft only. I fished there yesterday in the wind and rain and caught 29 bass. It was a beautiful day and I had the whole 10,000 acres to myself. I caught one on a spinnerbait and the rest on Zoom toads.

I recently took my friend Brandon fishing with me. He used live minnows while I single pole jigged. I would troll around looking for crappie on the graph. When I found them, I would jig right down on them. Surprisingly, the jig out-performed the minnows. I couldn’t believe it!

Spent Sunday pushing some minnows with my two favorite fishing buddies. This was only the second time that I’ve gotten a chance to try my home made spider rig and finally feel like I’m figuring it out. I love checking out new places and this may be my new favorite.

I have been doing a lot of saltwater fishing and wanted to give the freshwater anglers something. I was hoping to catch some big largemouth bass and peacocks, but the peacocks were the only thing biting. I fished here before almost a year ago to the date of this trip. I only had a few hours on the water, but it was well worth it.

Forum member Bigslab11 premired his first youtube video. It featured single pole jigging for big crappie. He was fishing with lights out jigs in central Florida. “We caught these crappie in about 12 feet of water on an offshore ridge and brush pile.”

With all this rain lately in Florida, it has caused there to be a lot of current in some of our local lakes. My buddy Cory and I fished the flowing water with rattle traps and jerk baits and absolutely crushed ’em today. It’s crazy how they won’t throw the trap, but on tournament day they throw it every single time.

The fishing was so good that we both caught a pile of giant fish. While he was jigging for crappie, he caught a seven pound bass. We couldn’t believe that a bass that big would bother with a jig as small as that.

This was an awfully slow day of bass fishing in the rain, but the only bite I got was the right bite. How big do you guys think this bass was? I didn’t take the time to weigh it, but it was short, extremely fat, and had a bucket mouth. The fish was caught on a 5” green/red flake senko texas rigged with no weight.

Forum member sandwashslugger put together a nice compliation of his recent freshwater fishing ventures, and he has had some real pigs at the end of his line! Check out his short video in the link below.

The fishing didn’t get off to a great start and it was brutally hot out. The young buck didn’t make it long, but I was able to put him on some peacock bass and largemouth, although none were big fish. When we wrapped up I had about two dozen live baits left and decided to go out on my own. Of course, the first spot I rolled up on had big peacocks and clean water. They were going through another round of spawning in this video.

Forum member EBOutdoors teams up with Bass2bucks on a trip down south to find some peacock bass, and find peacocks they did! “In this video I head down to Miami Florida in pursuit of giant peacock bass. We had a great day catching a ton of beautiful fish.”

Sunday on Lake Hernando had a water temperature of 88 at daybreak. The day started slow, with only one blowup on a topwater, without a hookup. I only weighed in four bass and ended up 5th. It was a tough day out there for me. One of the other competitors said he had four about the same size. Maybe I had a shot to place in the money. What he failed to mention was this “kicker” fish.

I took the family down to Lake George to stay with friends and do some fishing. We were fishing for schooling bass and hybrid stripers. We were able to find some fish, even in the wind. The fish hit pretty much any fast-moving soft plastic when they surfaced. The fish were in open water over grass beds.

My brother and I went and fished Lake Hernando Saturday afternoon/evening. The bite was slow, but steady. We were throwing frogs, different worms, and swimbaits. I was able to stick a nice one which measured over 23 inches and over seven pounds on my scale. The fish was a little skinny, but healthy and actually one of the bigger fish I’ve caught at Hernando. Other than that, our next biggest fish was around three and half. Our best five probably weighed somewhere around 16 pounds. All in all, it was a good afternoon!

I got out in a local pond a few times recently with the fly rod. I found many little bass, bluegill, and crappie. Most came on a white woolly bugger. I got some to take hoppers and poppers. I even managed a little pickerel on a popper. Not a bad day, but I wish I had found some bigger bass. I think they are all out deep with it being so hot out right now.

I went out the other day on some semi-local waters, looking for another clown knifefish. Despite seeing 20-25, I just couldn’t get them to eat. Tried artificials and live bait, but they just weren’t having it. A lot of them were rolling in pairs gulping air in the same spot over and over so I think they might be spawning.I ended the day with about eight peacocks and this nice fat bass. This one fell for a small live shiner on a 1/4oz jighead bounced along the bottom.

There were heavy storms in the forecast, so we knew we would be dodging rain all day. We got out there and immediately began catching fish. The fish have seemed to have moved to the outside grass lines. We caught all of our fish pitching creature baits with punch skirts on a half ounce weight. My buddy caught a giant towards the end of the day which made for an awesome video!

I launched in the Withlacoochee near Inverness. I’ve used plastic worm almost exclusively and have had good results. However, I get annoyed with how wimpy the worms are and am constantly changing them. It is nothing to go through a bag of 20. So today I tried one of my favorite red and snook artificial lures, Z-man jerk baits, and fished it like a worm. Today I used the gold flake root beer color. After about five casts I became a believer as my personal best bass at 23.5″ came in the boat.

I rip it through the grass to go ahead and cast again and it comes loose hits the middle of the weedline and gets absolutly destroyed! I ended up pulling a decent size fish in water I thought was a few inches deep!

Decided to use artificials on the Northeast side of the lake to get out of the wind and maybe bend a rod. The bait was popping and there were fish around, but only managed one three pound bass on a New Penny Gulp Shrimp on a 1/8 oz jig in one foot of water.

My nephew caught this 10.7 pound largemouth while fishing a local bass club tournament. Now for those of you not familiar with St Mary’s, it is not known for producing giants like this very often. Usually two to five pounders are the norm. So this one was the trophy of a lifetime!

It’s time to crappie fish. It took a while to find some willing to chew, but when I finally found them they were chewing the hooks off. The fish wanted no part of the minnows, but were more then ready for some jig action.

Forum member Bass2bucks took his girlfriend out to the Stick Marsh recently, where they recorded their bass adventure. After a slow start, they found where the bass were hiding and enticed them with some live shiners.

We got up today, bought some shiners and went to Lake Lowry in Camp Blanding. We caught 16 total bass. We did manage to catch a couple two pounders and a three pounder, the rest were dinks, but fun. My oldest hooked and lost a monster that had our blood pumping.

Awesome morning fishing with Dave and his grandkids, I doubt they could have caught more fish. Easily triple digits today, largemouth, sunshines and some really nice peacocks. Dave caught the only clown knife fish of the day, which was also his first.

After fishing several miles with a few fish here and there, we finally found an area where the fish were schooling up and biting! Jerk baits and the gambler EZ swimmer were the key lures. Overall we put together some nice decent bass to end the morning!

Since my Tortugas trip this summer I’ve been trying a 3/4 ounce pink and white BPS Freestyle jig every once in awhile in the backyard lake. I finally connected two weekends ago while fishing with my nephew.

Great day of peacock bass fishing. Big fish of the day pushing 7 pounds and 23 inches, many other fish landed up to 5 pounds as well throughout the day. Awesome stuff! All of these fish were landed on jigs. They are active and ready to be on your line right now!

There was plenty of fishing action mixed in with the scenic views, and I lost count of the number of redbellies I caught along the way. There were a few small bass mixed in as well to mix things up a bit, and I saw a number of large gar that would have really made things interesting on the ultralight tackle.

First cast was under some suspending tree limbs. I took my eye off the line to look at Bert as I hear him fighting a fish. I look back at my line and it is slowing moving away from the limbs into deeper water. I set the hook and all of a sudden I was in a fight of a life time!

I did some Navionics Sonar Scans in the Everglades and while we were out doing that anyway, we decided to throw some topwater lures and see what happened. It was AWESOME! Largemouth bass and snook on alternate casts throughout the day.

Well not offshore in the gulf but to a lake in Southwest Georgia. With fishing reports in the Panhandle area on slow side, I thought it might be time to wake everyone up before the cobia get thick off the beach. Left the boat ramp at 6:30am, back by 11:30am and had a blast.

They ended up taking second and third overall and his buddy got biggest bass of the tournament at six pounds, nine ounces. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the two teens on the boat were actually competing against each other. It all worked out very well.

As the little guys get in the mix it will be important to get under the top feeders to get down to the “drag burners”. Figuring a bait that will get down fast and throw long and accurate can be a challenge…carolina rig.

Over the last six weeks I have been targeting bass that have are transitioning in Lake Tarpon more successfully than the bedded fish. The bedded fish seemed very skittish in the clear water of the canals but they are really aggressive in their transition areas.

Me and a good friend of mine went out searching for LMB and those big drag burning sunshine’s yesterday and found enough to tighten the old wrists. My bud Mike also caught his first largemouth and it was the only one caught by us at 4.54 pounds.

The water has risen over three feet in the past month and fish were hard to find with the flooded trees and fast water. The trick was non moving or very slow water, water temperature was 65 to 66 degrees all day.

The wife and soon to be little one came along also which made for quite the crew! Anyway lots of fish, singles, doubles even a few top water fish came over the rails. There was lots of laughs and squeals, and fun had by all!

I have a deal with a few of the neighbor kids (their parents are in on it) for honor roll fishing trips. My little fishing buddy today is Dylan and this is his second honor roll trip out to get some sunshine bass.

My wife and I went targeting sunshines for Valentine’s morning. We made it a little later start than normal and did ok considering the last few days, boating five. Nothing on the troll like they were, all caught on shrimp (live and fresh-dead) bottom rigged.

Finally got back on the fresh water today after chasing Reds for a few days with my Son on the Lagoon. The sunshine bass did not disappoint taking them on the troll with 10 pound tackle is a blast and they do burn some drag.

The spring was 71 degrees and the river was 53 degrees. I caught four small bass in the spring run. After that I went down stream and fished the slower water close to the warmer bank with a worm. I didn’t count but caught more than a dozen and had a couple of larger ones come unbuttoned.

Now I must admit, I haven’t fished this lake in over 30 years, like I stated earlier, and over the years fishing tactics change. Most of the morning was pretty slow, with just a fish here and there, as we tried to figure out where the fish were and it was cold too.

I tossed the lure in-between the pipes and started slowly twitching it. As soon as the lure came across the face of one of the pipes and my rod just went straight down. I knew right then this bass was a big one!

Headed up to some cattails in the lake and put live shrimp out on the bottom and one on a float. The one on a float got hit pretty fast and I fought the fish for a bit before it spit the hook. Was slow for another twenty minutes or so and then got another hit on the shrimp under the float.

I completely re-tied my leader before throwing back out and that proved to be the right move. I hooked and landed a new personal best that went at 4.8 pounds. Very next cast I hooked into what I knew was a big fish. At first glance I thought I had hooked the same fish again.

The first third of the float didn’t amount to much catching just trying to avoid all the canoes and kayaks. After the big shoal the fishing started to pick up with a bunch of bass caught. No big ones but some nice largemouth and suwanee bass.

The day was not over by a long shot. We kept catching them at a steady pace until about 9:20. When we finished, we had 10 bass each and Steph came away with the big girl. To my surprise we ended up with five fish over four pounds.

Been fishing freshwater in my backyard in between trips to the ICW for my reds. The bites been pretty good using zoom super flukes in watermelon seed color fishing way back up in the grass where nobody goes.

I never went for more than a few hours each trip but caught over 20 bass each time. Several fish were 1 to 2 pounds. Each time I lost a couple 3 pounders, but last trip I caught a big fat 7lber. Had alot of fun in the kayaks on the Withlacoochee river.

This past weekend my brother, a friend and I took a guys’ trip to Miami to fish for exotics. We took our kayaks with us so we could explore some of the canals. We managed to catch quite a few peacock bass as well as Mayan cichlids and oscars on artificial baits, shiners and even a few on fly.

If someone would’ve told me that I could get out there with Suspending Jerk/Twitch baits and Topwater Sebile Slim Sticks (walk the dog topwater) and catch 25 Largemouth in three hours I’d have thought they were crazy.

We had to cover a lot of ground and do a lot of casting to catch the ones that we caught. We were throwing top water rubber frogs for the snakeheads and when they decide to eat they absolutely crush the frogs. We also caught about a dozen large mouth bass while we were fishing for the snakeheads.

The heat is oppressive. The bite is tough. Sweating bullets and my back is killing me. I cast out my trick worm on a point. I work it a bit and lean forward to ease the tension in my back. I begin to reel in and my line is coming to me. I set the hook and a big bass has taken my bait.

Since the wind was blowing Saturday my son and I took the opportunity to run South to Fort Lauderdale to see if we could find some more areas that were holding peacock bass. We ended up catching 14 peacock bass, half a dozen large mouth bass and we made a few attempts at a decent size snook that we could not get to eat before he swam off.

That was until my crank bait stopped as if I’d hung a brush pile then line starts dumping off my bait caster. Fought the fish for about 10 minutes thinking my bad day off bass fishing was gonna end with a trophy size largemouth. When this snook comes up to the surface.

The last few weeks my buddy and I have hit a few lakes when the planets were in perfect alignment. We had a more than a few two an half hour trips when we caught 30 to 50 bass between us. A few were 6 to 8 pounds and most came during the hottest part of the day.

My buddy came from north Georgia to fish with me this weekend. We fished the Withlacoochee above the 200 and did pretty well. He mostly caught his fish on jigs while I used a worm. I caught a smorgasbord of fish including a huge bowfin, stumpknockers, warmouth and a bunch of bass.

Well my brothers were in town and we decided to take my center console over to Lake Okeechobee for the first time and try for bass. We stopped and got 2 dozen shiners. We launched out of the Kissimmee River and headed out to a area that looked good.

Caught the largest bass I’ve caught in Florida this afternoon. Also caught several more on the same green pumpkin finesse worm that I’ve been using almost exclusively for the past 12 years. The big fish weighed in at 4 pounds 8 ounces.

Got a call from a fishing buddy about going for a little perch fishing, so off we went sunday afternoon. Fished about 3 hours and it was a blast, we left the fish chewin because we had more than enough.

Weather was for crap but we went anyway and was rewarded with 28 Bass (19 Largemouth and 9 Sunshines). 5 Pounds biggest largemouth and 7 pounds was the biggest sunshine. Bait ranged today with three guys throwing at them but the best was still the Mirrodine.

Located some bait again today and the largemouth and several nice stripers were close behind. Just my wife and I today put 15 in the boat. MirrOLures ruled the day, medium MirrOdine and large MirroMinnow.

Primarily fishing Gambler Big Ez’s rigged on 7/0 ewg hooks, reeling them on the surface, we were able to watch every bass destroy our baits. Did lose a giant due to the braid breaking and a few more to the lilly pads, but all in all a good day of fishing.

Monday morning we saw some birds diving and caught a dozen crappie for dinner then went bass fishing. Using worms, spinnerbaits and jerkbaits we caught a dozen or so bass with a 14 incher being the largest. The water warmed up to 62 degrees and the bite turned on, some what.

The morning started out a little windy but once the wind laid down in the afternoon the fishing started to pick up. We ended up with only 5 crappie, some small bass, 1 catfish, and a pleco. We missed a couple bigger fish in the weeds because we were using some very light tackle.

As far as fishing, it was markedly slow until the sun got low. I managed a few decent fish on my nymph fly but the real action started as dusk set in and the fish began feeding on the surface. In a matter of 5 minutes I boated two 10″ bluegills on a popping fly and lost another large fish due to a missed hookset.

Decided to change it up a little today and go try my luck on some freshwater fish. Threw poppers, spinner baits, and some flies to catch around 20 bass and a pickerel. Got cut off by a few pickerel too. Nothing very big but watching the bass and pickerel shoot out from under the lily pads to crush a a popper is all the excitement I need.

I headed straight to the lily pads and started some flipping. My first fifteen minutes were slow but I could see slight movement around the pads. I saw a lilly pad twitch so I flipped the why not over to that pad and as soon as that bait hit the water that bass nailed it! Nice four pounder landed!

I give the rod to him and he makes his first cast. He is reeling it in and comes across a stick pile. As soon as the worm bumped an underwater limb a tiny mouth came out of the water and made a splash. I say,”Seth you got one set the hook buddy set the hook”! He’s freaking out in excitement and hands me the rod. I land the bass and go to give him a high five. In that very moment I seen a smile that went from ear to ear and a little boy that was filled with joy.

It was getting late so i switched over to spin gear to see if i couldn’t land a decent size peacock before we called it a day. I would have much rather gotten the fish on fly, but i’ll still take it. It was a solid fish and a good way to end the day.

Monday’s forecast meant kayaking out of the wind somewhere so down the Loxahatchee. We went in my tandem kayak. The water is still higher than I like but it was manageable. The big bass was the only fish I caught for the day but I made it count. My friend caught one bass, 6 snook and a hoard on panfish as I paddled.

We discovered the pickerel were more active than the bass in that stretch, so just a few bass, but a bunch of pickerel. We ended up with a possession limit of bass and more pickerel than we really wanted to dress.

Used primarily topwater rubber frogs for the snakehead, and the biggest bass attacked the frogs too. Peacocks on lipless crankbaits, and livebait. Plus one catfish on a rubber worm strangely enough. and even a needlefish that took a jig.

My real passion for fishing is in the offshore waters but I also do a lot of freshwater fishing in creeks,rivers and lakes. On this trip got a late start leaving dock at 3pm. We fished shallow water throwing crankbaits and jigs.

Other guys hooked into snook, jacks and tons of little bass and cichlids but I was able to land the biggest peacock of the event at 17.5 inches. I also caught a 14 inch female and saw tons of other fish like big largemouths, mayan cichlids, huge carp that look like bull reds and others.

My fish ate a piece of expired potato bread. Brought him in on 8 pound test on a 6 foot rod and bass pro viper spinning reel. Measured in at 41 inches in length and a 24 inch girth. Both fish were fought for less than 15 minutes and safely released.

Got a call from a buddy over in Fort Lauderdale saturday morning that the peacock bass were back in full force at the old stomping grounds in Weston. I grabbed the gear, packed the car, and made the 3 hour drive from Sarasota to West Fort Lauderdale. We said our hi’s and such, and it was off in search of peacock bass. And peacocks o plenty we found.

Plenty of dinner plate sized gills around. They were being difficult but, in the end they eventually succumbed to bread balls on a flat line. By no means complicated stuff. When it’s right there in the backyard though, it beats sitting on the couch. Eventually, a carp came by and my neighbor Craig put a Fly on big girls nose. She inhaled it and was off to the races.

Worked the area and added a 2 pound to the well and I caught a 5 plus pounder to help. Fishing was slow but we were able to cull twice and threw a bunch of 2 pounders back. I lost a big one flipping I never turned but it didn’t matter. Our 21.62 final weight took the win!

Rather than waste a promising morning of fishing we decided to hit some nearby ponds for a Big Carp. Little Joey had never caught one before so we made it happen. The boys got around 15 or so large bluegill,over a pound,and 4 big grass carp.

The key is to find the cleaner water with minimal current. After pre-fishing with minimal success my partner and I got lucky on tournament day and found the mother load. We burned up some gas running over 40 miles before we got lucky and stumbled on these fish.

Made a trip to a new area I have been meaning to get out to for nearly a year now. Shell Creek is a freshwater creek system off of the Peace River in Punta Gorda. I had heard good reports of panfish and bass in the past from this location and put it up on my list of places to try out.

We dragged the kayaks over to our trusty lake and set out. Jay had a very productive morning, 2 big Bass around 6 pounds, 2 around 4 pounds and a bunch in the 3 pound range. I on the other hand, not so much.

Here’s a solid Bass i picked up this morning fishing a pond near my home. Picked up several other good fish but this one was my best. I think it’s my personal best. All fish were caught on Zoom, U-Tails in Junebug color pattern. The fish once again, were in either deeper water or underneath low lying tree limbs keeping in the shade.

With the falling water levels the big fish are in the canals and feeding on Snakes, freshwater eels, Frogs and Bluegill. This has made for one heck of a good time and I have taken full advantage of this time of year. In the last three weeks I have weighed in two bags over thirty and at this weeks King of the Glades Championship round I weighed in 26.86 which got me nothing more than a pat on the back. The top 5 teams all had bags over 30 pounds.

Once the bait made it’s touch down, fish were on it nearly every cast. Many casts didn’t require a retrieve as fish were picking it up on the drop. The bite was very aggressive. We had a great day with a lot of solid fish being caught including my personal best, a stout 6 pound Bass with a mouth big enough to put my fist in.

These two anglers were hardcore! We fished and fished even while the rain was falling. The bite was slow but we had action in the deeper waters while fishing live baits. Brandon also got to fight a fresh water tarpon in the 30 pound class for a few jumps before it wore through the leader and swam away. They managed to land a couple of largemouth bass, and a couple of different cichlid species as well.

High stuck a fish and when I finally caught up to it I realized it was a nice one. I backed off my drag and it made a pretty good run before I netted it. If this was the tournament it would have got off,but of course that wasn’t going to happen.

After about hour or so of throwing the worm and nearly giving up on it I pitched it up under a rock ledge and was met with an almost instantaneous thump. As the fish started to fight and pull drag I immediately knew I had something other than a bass on. Finally after a few laps around the boat and nearly losing her in the prop I was able to boat a respectable 33 inch snook, my first on a bass worm!

The water has come off the flats and concentrated the bass in the canals. Holiday Park seems to be offering the most exciting fishing. Bass anglers are taking monster bass to 9 pounds. One of the latest Holiday Park tournaments was won with an astounding 5 fish sack at over 37 pounds.

Kayakin’ for Largemouth

Florida Sportsman member: syd7792

“The bass were on fire last weekend here in Valrico Lake. Bass fishing out of a boat is awesome but nothing compares to fishing out of a kayak. When you hook a bass that gives you the fight and the ride of a lifetime, it is just epic!”

I had the pleasure to take a father and son team out for a day of chasing these beautiful, and ferocious gamefish. Steve and his dad came down from Ohio and wanted to scratch Peacock Bass off their bucket list’s. Being that the Peacock bass is one of, if not the hardest fighting freshwater fish. It’s always great seeing the looks of amazement of someone when they hook into their first Peacock bass.

We flipped minnows under corks for a couple hours and picked up 8 Crappie the biggest went 14 inches, and 1 Warmouth. We certainly didn’t crush it but Dad had been wanting some crappie which is what we got him.

I took my son out for about an hour and put him on a couple nice peacocks and a decent largemouth. He had a blast! I hope to get the boat back Tuesday and get out in the ocean this week and get some bigger fish!

Wintertime Backyard Bass

Florida Sportsman member: chut03

“The fish have mostly been hitting soft plastics, and the Zoom Trick Worm really is a bass magnet! I landed the largest one, a 5 pound’r, on a black Trick Worm last week. All fish were released safely and will live to fight another day!…”

I fished a familiar spot armed with my fly rod and got exactly what I came for, a 3 pound peacock was hanging by a pipe and the second my fly hit the water he went bonkers for it, he had a pretty good sized hump on him considering it was very late in the spawn season.

It didn’t take long for my buddy to hook up the first hog bass of the day! We got a few more then it slowed down big time till the sun came out and warmed up the lake, then the peacock bass came out to play.

We’re catching some real brutes in the systems we fish. Water levels are dropping and the forage fish are a little bit bigger. Which translates into awesome days of fishing for those who prefer throwing artificial lures. On one of my first trips out this year we landed a beautiful 7+ pound Peacock bass that absolutely crushed a DOA swimbait that was tossed his way.

December at the Miami Airport Lakes was excellent for the Peacock Bass. Last week we got into the P’s pretty good on top water plugs, X-raps and shiners. The weather was too windy for the main lake so we ventured into the residential canals and found the P’s ready to chomp on our offerings

I primarily fish saltwater down south. My nephew has been asking me to go fishing with him in the local lakes around his house. After work yesterday I swung by and bent the rod with him for a couple hours. He ended up catching 4 and I got 2. Was a nice change of pace from my usual fishing.

From what I’ve heard and seen, the lakes starting to turn back around however for me, it fished a little tough this weekend. There’s no doubt those bigger fish are staging and about to move into spawn, it’s just a matter of time before the lake pops off and those big 30 plus pound bags are brought to the scales. We did manage to catch probably 20 to 30 fish and only one bigger fish at 5 pounds.

The water in the glades has come down a little lately and the bite has picked up considerably. Me and Johnny fished last week way back in the center of the glades. We started at first light with Spro frogs and Rapala Skitter Props in the lily pads. The first hour was non stop with the top water baits. As the sun came up the top water bite died. We changed out the top water baits for some diving Rapala baits. It was a steady bite all day…no monsters but good fun. I’m really looking forward to the next several months. It should be an incredible bass bite.

“LET’S GOR FOR IT!!” Is the reply I received when suggestion was made for the Slam. It was music to my ears! Now we’re on a mission, and we headed off for the Tarpon bite. After setting up current of the tarpon and a quick talk about their fighting habits. We start the drift into the hot spot. Within a couple of minutes we get a hit,but it popped loose at the surface. A few minutes later Tim hooks up with a nice Sword Spine Snook!…Species #2 down. Not to be out done Jess” reel starts singing and a typical Miami fresh water Tarpon comes flying out of the water. Seven acrobatic jumps later it comes aboard for a quick pic,and release…. Speicies #3 Slam achieved, and it’s only 8:30 in the morning.

Hit up the Stickmarsh, for the first time since I think 1992 today. Long dirt road wasn’t bad, put in and headed to the SW corner of Farm 13. Ended up with two nice fish around 3 pounds or so. Went to spillway, no water running. Went to ditch in middle of Farm 13, nothing. Went to buggywhip patches on south side of Stickmarsh and caught 3 around 2-3 pounds. Decided to hit the ramp around 12p. Total bass fisherman with trailers at ramp around 8.

Since we pulled off the marsh early, stopped by Lake Blue Cypress since I’ve never fished it. Really a beautiful place, probably what most Florida lakes looked like once upon a time. Fished it for about 90 minutes and rode around the whole lake. Awesome looking cypress trees. Stumbled into this little 9-pounder in some Kissimmee grass on the north side.

I recently went night fishing in one of our canals down here in south florida. I have found the night bite in the summer time down here to be pretty awesome. I don’t know why but for some reason those big fish will cruise at night and you can catch some absolute giant bass. I put together a short video of some of the action I hope you all enjoy it.

Hit the River tonight for about 3 hours and managed some really nice cats. Big fish was 45 pounds. We had a few double and triple hook ups. What a night. The big flathead was released to fight another day.

My buddy Anthony and I headed out on Saturday after deciding it would be best to hit the urban waters and leave the boat on the trailer. Shortly after getting out there, our goal became to get him a nice fish on fly. After a few hours of fending for ourselves, we get a hold of Adam Rizzi from Reel Deal Adventures, and he invites us out for some Snakehead hunting. Who could every say no to fishing with RDA? He found out Anthony had never caught a Peacock and it was on! Then he reminded me, that I still did not have a Snakehead off my list, and the very first spot he took us to, SNAP! That jaw closed, my hook was set and he leaped out of the water.

Caught my personal best on Lake Okeechobee yesterday using a Gambler Big EZ. It was a hair under 10-3/4 pounds. My client had just boated a fish close to seven pounds when it started to get stormy and bolts of lightening started striking the lake. We ran in and waited out the storm. Eventually we ran back out to the school of bass we had found and this girl exploded on the Gambler Big EZ. I was using a Shimano Chronarch 200e7 with a Hawg Tech Hawg Handle mounted on a Fitzgerald Rod.

Ok, folks here goes. I had a chance to guide one of my best clients in the Blue Lagoon system here in Miami for a day of Peacock bass fishing…Oh what a day!!Seeing that Peacock bass are in their summer pattern down here. It only makes sense to start off the day a little later than the usual sunrise start. The peacock bass are a fish that loves bright sunshine and hot days, usually the hotter, the day the better the bite. We left the ramp at around 11’ish and headed straight into the canals systems in search of some bigguns.

Right away I had my client on fish that were full of fight and beautiful to look at, very colorful. After a quick lunch break we decided to head off into some canals that I’ve seen monsters in before. We didn’t hook up with any big one’s there,but she did land a very respectable freshwater snook that inhaled a very well placed lure…

We woke up early Sunday and drove south to fish some peacock bass. Pulled up to a spot on a canal that we had done good on before and were able to sight fish right away. Most of the fish were in pairs, but we got 6 nice peacocks, 3 on fly from the first spot alone. We hopped around to a few spots the rest of the day and got 3 more before it got too hot for us and we headed home. All around great weekend!

I was fishing on Lake Okeechobee a few weeks ago with some fellas from Ohio. They had told me that the everglades bass were too easy and they did not care to catch a 100 normal sized bass but would like to catch a few good hawgs. I suggested Lake Okeechobee for some chubby chaseing, which turned out to be a great idea. A week prior to this trip I had found a school with some pretty good sized fish, so I was hoping they were still around. They started off with three some small fish and then then it was on like donkey kong. Bruce was working a BoohYah spinnerbait, clacking it on the surface and making a heck of a fuss. But it did trigger the first chubby of the morning. Then Bruce followed that one with a ten pounder on the same bait, same technique. I made a cast and was looking around to see what was happening in the back of the boat, when I looked back at my frog it was gone. I set up just in case and was rewarded with a heck of a fight from a beautiful nine plus pounder. We fished for 6 hours and got 12 fish. All released to fight another day. I love days like this.

Got a phone call late last night after leaving the IGFA for the 10th Annual World Records Achievement Awards, my old friend Rey wanted to get out for a couple of hours this morning and chase some peas. That we did, after watching a band of rain cruise right by as the sun was just peaking out. It wasn’t too long before we started to get hits, bumps, and super aggressive charges. The water is almost back up to normal levels in most parts, the sun was shinning, winds laid down finally and the peas were out for blood today. Bass thumb was an understatement!

Headed over to Talquin bright and early Thursday morning. My girlfriends grandpa has really been wanting to go over there and see how trolling is done. Also had a friend from Tallahassee meet us at the ramp to tag along. With little wind it was a very nice day to be long-lining. I was worried that with the fish we caught 2 weeks being full of eggs and the full moon would have them on bed, but they were not. All our fish came out of deep water in the channels. We probably boated over 150 specks, but with Talquin having a 10 inch limit, we only ended up with 33 keeper specks, a striper, and an aggressive bream.

This girl put up a fight! I was flipping a KVD perfect plastic caffeine shad rigged weightless around trees that had fallen in the water. I twitched the bait twice, let it sink, then when I went to reel in the slack POW! She hit that bait hard! I set the hook and she came jumping out of the water and thats when I knew she was a hog! She did not come easy though! I reeled her up to the left side of my boat where my aunt went to net her but the bass dove right back down under the boat! I took some tension off her and got her back up to the surface but as soon as she saw that net coming down she dove again but towards the front of the boat all the way around to the right side! I thought she was going to break off several times in these few minutes that felt like forever! Finally my aunt was able to net her and I was stoked! My adrenaline was going and my heart was beating like crazy! I went home a very happy girl!

Went out with a mission this morning. I wanted to get a decent pea on fly and caught this 23 inch stud male butterfly peacock. He came out of nowhere and crushed my clouser like it owed him money. He swirled on the fly and missed it twice before he tore off some line. My biggest peacock on fly to date in Miami, FL. I almost broke my rod landing this guy.

Hooked up with a father & son team from Jersey today. It was pretty cold in the am but the winds laid down a bit with clear blue skies all day. The waters are low again and the bite was very slow but picked up after lunch. We caught many largemouth bass, nothing crazy…a bunch of peas and a spotted tilapia to complete a lil’ freshwater slam. Always a pleasure to put people on a new species and cross it off their “bucket list”. We started off the day with a very nice largemouth bass in the a.m. Great way to start the day!

Saturday went out with my dad to do a little fresh water fishing. Its amazing how lucky we are to live in South Florida. There is such a big variety of fish here in our very own backyard. Anyways we ended up fishing lakes and canals all over Miami Dade and what a great day it was. We caught too many bass to count, and many “Lunkers” as well as the aggressive Peacock Bass. These fish are beautiful. I encourage anyone who has never caught one to go out and catch your self some.

The day started out beautiful so my aunt and I decided to hit the water. Once we put the boat in the wind picked up immediately and became very cloudy. To get out of the wind, I went down one of the canals in the pond we were fishing which ends in a big bowl type area. I was flipping up to the bank under some tree limbs that were hanging down, two twitches out of the rod and BAM! There she was!

There really is no science to peacocking. Peacocks are territorial and aggressive and will strike at anything you throw at them. My favorite lure for peacocks is the good ol’ rattle-trap. live bait is way to easy and provides zero challenge. Went out Sunday afternoon with Juanito and we got into some great action. Caught 15-20 fish between us in a couple of hours.

Had some time to kill recently so I decided I’d head out to some of the local peacock canals. I was tossing flies and small hardbaits. I lost count of how many I caught, and had a heck of a time! I got a few more pics but they’re all peacock. You get the picture. There’s nothing to it. No special live bait needed. Just get your favorite hardbait or fly and walk the canals. Some of these are from Kendall, and the others are a little further north.

My 8 year old caught a nice bass on a super fluke this weekend. His biggest yet. Bass fishing was real good all weekend in western Palm Beach County. Fish were hitting flukes and crankbaits fished slow.

Went out yesterday with a buddy of mine to hit up some peacocks. The county is still doing some weed pulling in Miami-Dade at certain canals still…causing the waters to become milky and shuts the fishing down but turns it up in other areas. We rode around for a bit or what I like to call, “urban run ‘n gun”, looking for some December peacocks in Miami, Fl. I sighted three very decent peas in a run off, end plug […]

I had the pleasure of fishing with an old fishing buddy I hadn’t seen since I moved away for college this weekend. Now that I graduated and finally moved back home to South Florida I will be able to fish my old honey holes and enjoy some of this awesome south florida bass fishing. This particular buddy of mine is this years Florida Bass Federation Champion and taught me a lot about bass fishing I had no clue about. We went out to Lake Okeechobee and tore the bass up. We didn’t have a real pattern we just runned and gunned around the lake fishing different spots a long the way […]

Fishing here in Broward has been great lately, even for December. We have been catching tons of peacocks, putting up 10 to 20 fish per trip, with some nice 3 to 6 pound fish mixed in.I can go on and on about each day of fishing but being too much to write about so I’m simply going to post some pics. Hope you all enjoy […]

Recently, FS member Joupdog1 stumbled upon an interesting fishery in the Southeast region of the forums. Big bass, pig snook, and rolling tarpon, all living in harmony in the freshwater ecosystem of a local neighborhood lake. Sounds too good to be true! Check out the first post, here.

Hit our new found secret pond and got 3 bass up to 4 pounds, but the highlight of the day came when Chris stuck an upper/over slot snook! This pond is a wonderful thing […]

“Talked the parents into letting us get out of school early Friday before Thanksgiving Break and man it was a good decision! Saw a pretty sweet sunset while we were out there too!” Fish caught on Little Bear Lake.

Target species; butterfly peacock in late fall, November in Miami, FL. The water is about a foot or so low, the levies are closed, the waters are still and scouting for peacocks the day before a guide wasn’t too promising. I always scout for targeted species a day or two prior to any guide. We had an early shower around 8 am and a light shower a bit later with overcast skies all day, making it very difficult to sight peas. The winds picked up and dropped throughout our 3/4 day guide. Upon calling to inform my client from Miami Lakes about the conditions yesterday afternoon, he gave me the thumbs up and we headed out despite my scouting report and mother nature. This guide was his birthday gift to his 19 yr. old son and the pressure was definitely on […]

We had an awesome day on the St. Johns River today despite the 20 mph plus winds and 65 degree temperature this morning. To be honest my expectations for today weren’t that great considering this storm we had, the moon phase and the blue bird skies but we still managed to lay the smack down on these bass […]

Had the opportunity to take a repeat client and his son out for some peacocks this past weekend. Skies were overcast, and rain occasionally came down, but we pushed through and managed some nice fish. The first two spots didn’t produce very many, but nonetheless, fish were caught. Since the bite wasn’t consistent, we headed to a lake system I’ve nicknamed “The Falls”. Within a single hour, Sehoon and his son tallied 23 peacocks and 6 largemouth bass […]

The club stayed at Richardson’s Fish Camp for this years end of year tournament. Nice place, VERY quaint, but OK. My father-in-law and I arrived Thursday and got to pre-fish that afternoon and Friday prior to the Saturday/Sunday event. I found some schooling bass and located an area in Goblits Cove that had some current flow, it looked promising Thursday but the next day was a bust. I checked the schoolers and got a decent fish quick so called it a day at noon Friday […

Had the opportunity this past Saturday to take my friend and snakehead guide Chris Licato on a Reel-Deal Adventure to Peacock Paradise. After his 30 minute drive down from Coral Springs to Pembroke Pines, I wasted little time, as the first spot produced 8 peacocks, including 3 bulldozers (4+ lbs). Here is just a sample […]

I was awaken by the sound of my alarm so I looked at it and said the hell with this and went back to bed. Way to start my fishing adventure, so I woke up at 8 and thought what now. It’s too late to make the 2 hour trip to Flamingo so I did the next best thing, go freshwater. I had to put away all my saltwater gear and grab my freshwater equipment and off I went. I arrived at Blue Lagoon at around 9 and off I paddled […]

Spent my birthday weekend with 5 hours fishing on Friday with a co-worker, and 6 hours Saturday with my son Josh. Co-worker was stoked because he got his biggest bass ever. Josh was stoked because he got his biggest fish this year […]

Last month LOB and I returned to Northern Saskatchewan Canada for a 10 day extreme fishing excursion. I focused on fly fishing and therefore found myself fishing solo quite a bit. Sunsets at 10:30 p.m. and sunrises at 3:30 a.m. gave us plenty of time to fish. We targeted walleyes, lake trout and northern pike […]

The peacock bass fishing here in Miami is going steady. Good fishing is to be had early and later in the day. The afternoon rain showers are cooling off the temps and creating a good amount of current, which is always a good thing while fishing for peacock bass. They seem to be keying in on the huge hatch of minnows we’ve had this year […]

The weather and the bite are a couple of things I cannot control. Just like the rest of the country, the everglades is experiencing the dog days of summer. It just get’s plain miserable from mid-morning untill the late afternoon. But even in these unbearable temperatures I have been on a Zara Spook bite all day, everyday for the past month. It’s has been a magical time of fishing.

Decided to put together a little video of some of the bigger fish we have caught on film this year. I fish a lot of the different lakes around central Florida and have brought friends along with me for a lot of the trips. Here are some of their bass from this year so far. Hope ya’ like the video […]

Went out to a private lake Saturday just before the storm moved in to the Ocala area. Fished for about 4 hours, the fish were turned on. There was a giant school of 1/2 to 1 1/2 pound bass chasing shinners in deep water. Followed them around for half an hour before they went down. We also caught a good number of fish off the weed pockets in about 4 foot of water […]

I decided to fish the Rodman Reservoir for the first time ever this weekend. I have always heard what an awesome place to fish it is as well as all the big bass stories that come out of this place so I had to make the trip. Game plan was to leave the house by 4 AM and make the 1hr 30 minute drive to the Kenwood boat ramp in Interlachen, Florida. The boat ramp is a nice two lane ramp with plenty of places to park. I met up with my buddy Matt who like me, has never fished the reservoir either […]

Here’s my little brother’s first grass carp. Caught on some bread with 10lb test line. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to weigh it as I didn’t have my scale with me and I didn’t want to stress the fish too much. This fish was caught in a medium sized pond in Broward County.

My youth league football and basketball coach came from La. to fish with me in the everglades and on lake Okeechobee. The Lake was tough as a storm with 55 mph wind came through just before dawn but we did manage some fish and a good one to boot. We went into the glades the next day and the fishing was much better […]

This afternoon I did a little messing around with the 7wt in the backyard pond with some sliders I’d cranked out earlier this week. Probably caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12bass in the 1-3.5lb range all on deer hair bugs. No monsters, but still lots of fun.

We fished The Apalachicola Catfish Tournament on April 28th with some pretty good results, but not enough to win. Unfortunately I chose a bad section of river to fish that was about dried up even still we caught some good fish our biggest was about 12 lbs but I had a buddy on another section of the river that got some good fish his largest was 15 lbs. A 33.5 lb Flathead won the first place prize for largest fish, and 177 lbs took the 1st place for most poundage.

It’s not very often I get to spend some time with my son Eric. Like a typical 18 year old, he has better thing things to do then hang out with me. If he’s not working he’s out with the ladies. We both happened to be off work on Monday and decided to hit some canals around the area, specifically the 10 mile canal off of Alico Rd. We have caught some very nice snook there in the past. We started out a little late in the morning and when we arrived we found there was no water coming over the water control dam […]

Took my buddy Conner fishing with me today on Johns lake in Clermont Florida. He had a blast and I was able to put him on some bass. The biggest one of the day was actually the first one of the day and we caught him after a few minutes of pulling up on our first spot! I love it when a plan comes together!

Next month I have a tournament on Johns Lake in Clermont Florida against a group of guys who are GOOD. When I mean good I mean that if you don’t have at least 5 bass weighing 20 lbs or more than you need not waste your time weighing in. That being said, I know I have my work cut out for me; especially since I have only fished this lake a total of two times before today. My plan of attack today was to look at Navionics charts and find where all the major spawning flats in the lake may be […]

Well folks it looks like the Peacock Bass in Miami have fared very well through the “winter” months. I took my older son out this morning in some of the southern canals to do some scouting. Turns out not to have been a bad idea. We caught a fresh water slam and some really decent Peacock Bass too. The fish are now in a post spawn mode so their feeding heavily on shad and wild shiners. So you have to make sure the lures or flies your throwing match the hatch. Or you’ll be chunking lures all day with no takes.

The water has been high and the bite has been hit and miss this winter down south , but the bite is just about to go off in the southern most parts of the everglades. I had Keith and Brandi down from Alabama and they tore up some bass on a combination of Yamamoto wacky rigged senkos, and Heddon torpedos. The largest bass of the day came from a 12″ black and blue Bass Pro Shops worm. The hot bite down south should be just a few days away.

Congratulations to South Florida angler and my friend, Corey Nowakowski for a pending new world record snakehead catch. The fish was caught here in South Florida on a buzz frog. The fished weighed in at 12 pounds, eclipseing the current I.G.F.A. record of 11.8 pounds which was caught Asia.

I had some really great guys down for some snake head and peacock bass fishing. Trude and his father, Jason were fishing one last time together as Trude will be leaving the country for two years. Jason had fished for the peacocks a few years ago with another guide and the trip made quiet an impression on him. We loaded the livewell with shiners and headed south to the motherland of peacock bass. The peacocks were easy to find and more than willing to fight. They boated somehwere around twenty-five with the biggest one tipping the boga at six pounds.

Exciting fishing report from a Florida Sportsman Member who took his girlfriend and two nieces fishing along a canal near Holiday Park. Using live shiners, they caught and released over 50 bass. After the girls left for a break, Bass2bucks fished alone for a while.

“I caught the majority of my bass on a watermelon seed Zoom Super Fluke and a june bug colored worm. Also quite a few on a Swimmin Senko (Christmas colored) and a few on a horny toad. I didnt see any bass on the beds which is what I hoped for but we still did manage to catch quite a few decent fish. All in all it was a great trip. My girlfriend caught her personal biggest (6 pounds) and my niece caught her biggest as well (5 lbs). Cant wait to get back down south and do it all over again. Until then I’m back in Orlando with a bass boat.”

Miami Peacock Bass and More

Florida Sportsman Member: COBRA

Today I had the opportunity to guide a younger angler in the canal systems for some Peacock bass. His birthday was recently and his parents chartered me for a half day trip for his present. The morning started off a lil slow due to the colder temps we’ve been having lately, but it sure picked up after the sun came up a bit. My angler Chris had his hands full trying to battle the P’s in close quarters. But he came out great landing about a dozen and missing a few more. The surprise of the trip was a real nice freshie Snook that beat the Peacock bass to a well placed lure by Chris. Boy was he HAPPY!! Anyways it was a great trip and I hope we can do it again sometime. We took some pics of the day for yous to check out. Thanks for reading our report.